Leader–Team Proactive Personality (In)congruence and Team Performance: Team Work Overload as Mediator

Drawing on the job demands-resources model, this study investigates how (in)congruence between leaders’ and team members’ proactive personalities influences team work overload and team performance. Results from two multi-wave, multi-source field studies involving 931 team members and 209 leaders reveal that teams experience higher work overload when leaders are more proactive than their team members than when the reverse is true. Leader–team congruence in proactive personality is associated with reduced team work overload. Furthermore, team work overload mediates the relationship between proactive personality (in)congruence and team performance. These findings advance our understanding of (in)congruence in proactive personality at the team level.